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Originally Posted by mika
Thanks for sharing. I spend most of my three weeks in Azerbaidjan in Baku  ... anyway I know the tourist brochure says differently, but Azerbaidjan is NOT in Europe ...
Grüsse aus Bolivien
mika 
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The modern convention for the Europe - Asia border is the crest line of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. Therefore a portion of Azerbaijan (including places like Quba and Khinaliq) is in Europe. Same for a few bits of Georgia.
It should be noted that the entire concept of Europe being a separate continent from Asia is purely political, a legacy of Greek prejudice towards the Persians.
Eurasia is the continent. If we were going to split Eurasia, the first candidate for a boundary would be the Suleiman / Hindukush / Karakoram / Himalayas Mountain arc. Hence the name Indian Sub-continent.
So the definition of Europe is more arbitrary than scientific.
But in principal I would agree that Azerbaijan is not a European country.
Nice trip BTW - I only visited Azerbaijan in the days when one was limited to a 72 hour transit. I liked the country as a whole, super friendly people. Didn't like Baku at all but thought the smaller towns were nice. My favourite place was definitely Nakhchivan... check out Ordubad if you haven't already
EO
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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.
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